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Death becomes them: Savannah's Casket Girls 'Sleepwalking' with ease

The Casket Girls are Elsa and Phaedra Greene and Ryan Graveface. (Photo provided)

The Casket Girls almost didn’t happen.

While scouting downtown for his eventual move to Savannah, Ryan Graveface spotted Elsa and Phaedra Greene in Chippewa Square.

“They were in the corner there just playing autoharp,” he recalls. “I was spying on them for a while and eventually approached them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mI0KNAYeKgw

“I just find Savannah to be totally amazing like that — randomly running into people and then five months down the line you have some kind of creative endeavor with them.”

That endeavor is the Casket Girls’ first record, “Sleepwalking,” which officially drops Nov. 6 from local Graveface Records. It may be the strongest full-length debut from a Savannah-based band since Baroness’ “Red Album” in 2007.

“I can say this because my voice isn’t on everything and I didn’t write the lyrics,” says Graveface, who wrote and performed all the music, “but it’s like the best thing I’ve ever been involved with.” That’s no small praise from a guy who’s been a key part of bands from Black Moth Super Rainbow to The Marshmallow Ghosts.

Like those acts, the Casket Girls feature Graveface’s signature experimental instrumentation, but the way it combines with the Greenes’ folky, eerie and ethereal vocals is original and exciting. The catchy title track plays like a droning indie anthem, complete with dreamlike lyrics. “We all know death is a big black dog,” the girls lead into the chorus.

“I had a dream where I was protecting someone very important to me from the black dog,” Phaedra explains. “I can’t say who, really, but they didn’t make it. Now they are in my dreams every night and I am still trying to save them.

“Last night, they had Q-tips shoved deep inside their ears, and I just kept pulling them out and wondering how that could have happened. We’ll see what happens tonight.”

The album came together almost exclusively through file trading, with Graveface laying down tracks and sending them digitally to the Greenes, though the trio is separated by just a few miles.

“They’re so amazing, man,” Graveface raves. “I’ll send it to them, and sometimes within hours they’ll send it back with a framework of what they want.”

“We have to be together, with live microphones, when we hear each of Ryan’s ideas for the first time, and record all reactions simultaneously,” Elsa says. “We record ideas until the song reveals itself ... and we reveal ourselves to the song, which can change form.”

The Casket Girls’ Oct. 27 performance at Graveface Fest will kick off their first national tour, where they’ll be opening several shows for Black Moth Super Rainbow, including a December performance at New York’s iconic Bowery Ballroom.

“We’ve done house shows and stuff but never a tour,” Graveface says. “It’ll be interesting.”

IF YOU GO

What: 2012 Graveface Fest

When: Noon-late night Oct. 27; music starts at 2 p.m.

Where: The Southern Pine Co., 616 E. 35th St.

Cost: $20; all ages, family friendly

Info: casketgirls.org

HEAR IT FIRST

Go to savannahnow.com/do to see the Casket Girls’ debut video from “Sleepwalking.”